Lucha Underground 9/6/2017 Review: Career Opportunities

We kick off the show with a much with big implications for Ultima Lucha Tres. It’s The Mack vs Drago with one of the seven Aztec Medallions on the line. From the opening bell, these two are trading blows with the utmost intensity, which really intensifies just how important of a match this is. This continues for a couple minutes until the end when Cobra Moon hops up on the apron for a distraction. The Mack shoves her off, then walks right into a kick followed by The Dragon’s Tail for the win. This one was way too short, but these two made the most of their time. It wasn’t great and, arguably, it’s too short to be truly good, but it certainly wasn’t a bad match. After the match, The Mack gets his revenge by laying Drago out with a Stunner, but Drago’s buddies Vibora and Pindar lay The Mack out afterwards.

Back from the break, Dario Cueto reminds us that next week is the landmark 100th episode of Lucha Underground. For that show, he announces Dragon Azteca Jr. vs Pentagon Dark for one of the Aztec Medallions, as well as Worldwide Underground vs Prince Puma and some partners of his choosing, and it will all be headlined by Rey Mysterio vs Matanza. Speaking of Mysterio, he hits the ring to confront Cueto, but Cueto tells him he must leave the building before Matanza’s upcoming match tonight. Mysterio refuses until Cueto says he’ll fire Dragon Azteca if Mysterio doesn’t follow his orders. Mysterio reluctantly leaves, but reminds Cueto that after he takes out Matanza, he will be coming for Cueto.

After that, we get undercover cops Joey Ryan and Cortez “Reyes” Castro fighting in a 5-0 Street Fight for one of the Aztec Medallions. Despite all of goofy gimmicks surrounding the ring (cop cars, doughnuts, crime scene tape, etc.), this really did feel like a fight, for the most part at least. Things turned into too much of a comedy match as it progressed, especially when it came down to spots involving Ryan’s balls; those things were put through the ringer tonight (got tased, coffee poured on them, etc). Anyone who knows Joey Ryan knows that it’s pretty much mandatory at this point for his crotch to be the focus of a match, but the way this feud has gone, I guess I expected a little more of a fight without the comedy. Regardless, that isn’t to take away just how fun this match was. Honestly, this probably should’ve been the main event; final segment of the show. Whether the spots were brutal or funny, they were entertaining. It was a blast to watch and the crowd were clearly having a blast watching, which made things even better. This came to a conclusion when Castro maces Ryan in the face, then slams him onto a stack of riot shields with a Michinoku Driver for the win. Again, super fun match that I really enjoyed.

Our last match of the night sees the returning Matanza take on The Rabbit Tribe. This was a full on comedy squash match. The Tribe tried to make Matanza dance with them, but Matanza wasn’t having it. Apart from that, The Tribe actually got way more offense than I would’ve imagined and frankly, more than they should’ve had. At one point, they get a super close near fall after they superkick The Monster and London hit his Shooting Star Press. I guess it added drama to the match, but even for something with as much wacky booking as Lucha Underground, no one was buying that Matanza would lose. Matanza should’ve just vanquished them with little to no offense from his opponents. This should’ve been The Hulk just smashing the J.O.B. Squad. Okay, The Rabbit Tribe are a little more than a J.O.B. Squad–they do hold three of the Aztec Medallions after all–but they’re a comedy group taking on a legit beast in his first match back since losing the Lucha Underground Championship. They didn’t need so much offense. Anyway, end of the match sees Matanza catch Saltador in mid-air with a Wrath of the Gods slam for the win.

We close out the show with an earth-shattering promo from Prince Puma. Before Puma can name his partners for next week’s tag match, Mundo interrupts him. The Lucha Underground Champion starts talking about his history with Puma dating all the way back to the very first episode of Lucha Underground three years ago. Mundo wants to make things interesting for their Ultima Lucha Tres main event in a few weeks and challenges Puma to a Mask vs Title match. Puma accepts, but Dario Cueto comes out and shuts it down since we already someone putting their mask on the line for that night’s show (Fenix vs Marty the Moth). So to up the ante, Cueto books Mundo vs Puma to be a Title vs Career match. Despite Vampiro visibly showing his disapproval to Puma, Puma accepts, lays out Mundo, and holds the title high to end the show.

For the second week in a week, we got a really disappointing Lucha Underground episode. Granted, tonight was better than last week, but that isn’t saying much. Tonight’s episode was passable at best, but it wasn’t on par with the show’s usual quality. Hopefully, things pick up for the 100th episode next week.